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So Royce Young and Adrian Woj had it right it when they cited the chances of Paul staying with the Thunder at 85% with a new four year deal at a $137 million dollars. I guess in the world we live in a $137 million dollars tops the Pacific Ocean and having a bunch of David Duke wannabees in your fanbase.

I’m glad this is over. Another Fourth of July will not be ruined as was the case in 2016.

I have no idea where Sam Presti goes with this team considering the presence of Carmelo Anthony, but for the moment a disaster was averted. That disaster would have been sending Oladipo and Sabonis to the Pacers for a one year rental of Paul George.

From a basketball standpoint this really doesn’t change much except now on paper OKC could still possibly be a team in the West with a chance to win the Northwest Division instead of being a team viewed as one fighting for an 8th seed in the West.

Obviously, they need to get rid of Carmelo Anthony’s huge salary and resign Jerami Grant.

But again, this was big for OKC in that if Paul George had left–the Thunder organization would have looked like fools for the second time in a three year period.

Instead, on paper, the Thunder emerge as a franchise with Westbrook, Paul George, and Steven Adams heading into the future.

That’s obviously not enough to unseat the Golden State Warriors, but it is a viable core to give pro basketball the look of a franchise which will not crumble and go away.

Now the Thunder have to figure out what to do with Carmelo’s absurd salary this season and figure out a way to keep Jerami Grant.

Plus…Billy Donovan needs to figure out his basketball team and pray Andre Roberson can play defense like he did before the injury in Detroit.

From an overall overview this in a sense ends the Durant Era in Oklahoma City. There won’t be another bummer on the Fourth of July. A top twenty black free agent for the first time in the history of the franchise besides Russell Westbrook decided Oklahoma City was an okay place to play pro basketball.

I would think this is a big deal for Russell Westbrook. If Paul George had left two years after Durant left for sure thing rings in Golden State the comments about Westbrook’s style of play would have been obvious.

I would also think Sam Presti just exhaled in a big way. He won’t be the guy who traded Harden, lost Durant, and then lost Oladipo and Sabonis for nothing.

Instead, he now has a respectable roster heading into the future even with Kevin Durant in California.

A decade of NBA basketball has now gone by in Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant has been gone for two seasons and yet the Thunder sustained as an organization.

A good day for basketball in Oklahoma given where this could have gone after Durant’s departure.

All this drama by the Okies in regards to where Paul George plays his basketball next season. All the guarantees by the Royce Youngs and Adrian Wojes as to why Paul George would stay in a God forsaken faux faith based market like Oke City when the Pacific Ocean is calling you home.

Paul George should go home. Go back to the ocean and get away from a place which gave the guy David Duke endorsed a 70% mandate in 2016.

He should take his son and go home.

Paul George…go home.

If I were a black dude his age with that kind of coin and a young son…I’d get the hell out of this place.

Kind of negative…I know, but that’s what I’d do if I were Paul George.

The fishing is good though. Maybe the fishing will be a factor. There’s great fishing in Oklahoma’s seventy-seven counties.

Count the black faces on the other side of the chain linked fence last summer at Will Rogers Airport.

Just saying….if I were Paul George my ass would be back by the Pacific Ocean and by people who don’t vote for guys David Duke endorses.

Just me.

I will not put another video of Donald Trump on my blog. He is not worthy. He is nothing more than a spoiled, petulant brat who should have had his ass kicked maybe back in the 6th grade or so. Maybe he would have turned out a better man.

A complete total loser.

Too bad none of those sixteen gutless GOP pussies didn’t between them have the balls to say as much…and I do include John Kasich in this group.

It is what it is.

This is what America has become.

Unbelievable.

Go home, Caligula. Let your wife and daughter run the country. They’re smarter than you….by an enormous margin.

I need a sing with alcohol somehow weaved into the lyrics.

Who could have possibly thought immigration reform like health care could be this this complicated?

So tomorrow is the NBA draft and we should begin to get a clearer picture of what the NBA might look like next season.

Here’s what it looks like. Golden State will once again be a prohibitive favorite to win the championship. If Houston resigns Chris Paul they will be the favorite to have the second best squad in the league.

Boston is interesting though. They have the pieces to make themselves as good as Houston and maybe possibly better as the team with the best chance to derail Wanda and Tony Durant’s dream of a threepeat for Cupcake.

All this other window dressing by all these motherfuckers at ESPN like say Brian Windhorst and Royce Young is just that…window dressing.

Because as long as Golden State doesn’t lose its mind and they keep Durant, Curry, Klay, Draymond and Andre together they’re a solid favorite to win the O’Brien Trophy.

I lost a lot of respect for Jim Traber yesterday listening to his crybaby bullshit about Greg Popovich. Traber hates Pop primarily for the things Pop has said about Trump and politics in general. I found it very small of Traber to demean perhaps the greatest coach in the era of collective bargaining in all of pro sports just because like me he thinks Donald Trump is a con artist piece of shit douchebag.

But I will write this though…Pop lived a blessed coaching life with one Timmy Duncan, but you know what…Pop himself has said that many, many times and deflected the credit to Timmy.

So…with the probable departure of Kawhi the end of the Spurs era will somewhat end tomorrow night much like the era ended in Oklahoma City on July 4th, 2016.

I’m very disappointed in Jim Traber.

Hopefully..Paul George somehow stays in OKC and Carmelo’s delusional ass is on some other roster of a basketball team which needs an over the hill overpaid player who hasn’t done anything team wise since he was at Syracuse.

Sam Presti has some serious work to be done.

We’ll see.

I had a very peaceful Father’s Day. I am at peace…and apparently that puts me in somewhat select company. I wanted Brooks Koepka to win the U.S. Open and for Patrick Reed to play well. Both things happened today..

NBA basketball and Donald Trump are the furthest things from my mind.

This is the time of the year I listen to country music. My three favorite country singers are probably Blake Shelton, Jake Owen, and Alan Jackson.

So…I’m going to cap off my Father’s Day with a Blake Shelton song and then watch Bourdain on CNN.

You make your own inner peace is what I would say.

I feel like I’ve lost a family member or a very close friend. Other than sports and occasionally some political bullshit–Anthony Bourdain is all I watch on television.

This caught me completely off-guard in that from the outside it would have appeared Anthony Bourdain had the perfect life.

He changed the way I view the world. He opened new vistas and places I will never see in person. He made me believe Waffle House is a pristine venue to eat great food.

We lost a lot with the moving along of Anthony Bourdain. We lost a national treasure.

I will miss him dearly. I may even go to the Waffle House tonight after his special to give him a special toast.

Be at peace…Anthony. Be at peace.

My heart is obviously broken over Anthony Bourdain. But for the moment or at least a day or two my hockey heart will be warmed by Alex Ovechkin and his teammates.

This championship team was not a Super Team. Not even remotely close. In fact, on paper, this team was not as good on paper as last season when they were ousted by Sid Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But this Washington club will go down in history as a special team.

They trailed in all four series on their journey to the Cup. They won more games on the road than at home in these Stanley Cup Playoffs. And they clinched all four series on the road.

This was a team which jelled at just the right time and never gave an inch. Never gave up and found a way to win with great team skating, beautiful passing, relentless checking, and a deadly power play fueled by Ovechkin and his 18 goals in post season play.

After thirteen seasons of being one of the league’s best players–Alex Ovechkin has finally reached the summit of hockey. His name is now etched on the Stanley Cup.

My heart has been touched by the Washington Caps and their magical journey. This is why we play, coach, or watch sports.

What a lovely Stanley Cup Tournament.

Not much drama or excitement for these NBA Finals. You expect this Warrior team which is loaded beyond loaded to win and they will do so again as they now have a 3-0 grip on beating LeBron again in a situation where he really doesn’t have a competitive chance.

The league has become boring. There is no competitive legitimacy to the league when Durant, Curry, Thompson, Green, and Iguodala are all healthy. Houston actually surprised me by pushing them to seven games. But that was with Iguodala missing most of the series.

Consider the other three major league sports. The Eagles just won a Super Bowl. The Houston Astros won last year’s fall classic. The Washington Caps are on the cusp of winning the Stanley Cup.

Excitement and fun everywhere except in the NBA where the league champion is another assumed Warrior walk thru.

The Warriors will once again be prohibitive Vegas favorites to three peat next season once they either beat Lebron in four or five games.

If you hook LeBron up with the next three best players available in the league even at that I’m not sure that changes the dynamic of where the NBA is right now.

Some will say this is what the Celtics did during their glory days with Bill Russell and Company. These aren’t those days. These are the days of a collective bargaining era which was supposed to spawn competitive parity. But in the end didn’t because of Steph Curry’s ankles and a contractual hole in the system.

The league is boring and the season is way too long for a post season tournament which presents little in the way of competitive drama.

Just think how much fun the NBA Finals would be if Durant had gone to the Celtics instead of taking the free pass to league championships.

And with me this has nothing has nothing to do with Durant leaving Oklahoma City, but more to do with the fact the champion of the league is a foregone conclusion.

Sad for the sport.

But give the Warriors credit in that they pulled it off.

Yawn.

Here’s the difference. Alex Ovechkin never hooked up with Sid Crosby and the Penguins to win a ring.

He beat them and is now one game away from a legitimate championship.

I must confess I’ve actually watched these last two games of the Rockets vs. Warriors series as the Stanley Cup Playoffs have a lull until the Finals begin in a few days.

Amazingly… this Super Team from Oakland has somehow fucked around and now find themselves down 3-2 in the series and one game away from elimination. Truly amazing. It almost has that same feel as in 2016 when the Thunder got up 3-1 on the Warriors and then reverted back to hero ball and promptly lost three straight games. Kevin Durant then slithered over to the Warriors’ side on July 4th when Jerry West whispered all the right things into Durant’s ears that changed the course of NBA history.

But here we are again and Kevin Durant in these last two games has basically sucked. Not quite as bad as those regretful last three minutes in Game 6 in Oklahoma City, but Durant has been bad.

So does this mean Durant will be in Houston next season if ‘his’ Warriors choke and lose this series?

Why not?

Why the fuck not?

Durant played college ball at Texas and his mother and his handlers and his stupid brother Tony could promote this as some sort of Coming Home move.

Then LeBron, Chris Paul, and Paul George could go play for the Jerry West and Steve Balmer’s LA Clippers team.

Can you imagine how much better OKC would have been this season with say Eric Gordon embracing the Sixth Man role and not having to wait for Carmelo to get up and down the court?

So based on what we’ve seen from Durant, Daryl Morey, and Jerry West then maybe what we could see next season is Durant playing for the team which just beat him.

Kudos to Chris Paul, Eric Gordon, Trevor Ariza, PJ Tucker and Clint Capela for making this an interesting series.

I wonder if Durant leaves if the Warrior fans will boo him and call him Cupcake?

Here’s Steve Kerr in Game 5 basically risking the wrath of Kevin Durant, his mother, the agents, and his stupid brother Tony by telling Durant to pass the fucking ball early in the shot clock. I bet Daryl Morey would never allow Mike D’Antoni to talk to Durant like that.

For the first time since 1998 the Washington Capitals have won the Eastern Conference and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.

The storyline is obviously Alex Ovechkin and his incredible Conn Smythe level performance this post season as the Caps have dispatched of Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Tampa for the right to play the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in what looms as a very interesting Stanley Cup Finals.

But for me as a fan of hockey this is Ovechkin’s post season to define his Hall of Fame career in his 13th season in the NHL.

Ovechkin in the past has had a bit of Russell Westbrook in him as a hockey player. Great stats. Hall of Fame stats, but the individual unwillingness to change his game in the name of winning the sport’s biggest prize from a team standpoint.

But this Alex Ovechkin is different. This player does all the little dirty work like role players do. Only thing is … this Alex Ovechkin is the most skilled goal scorer in the game of hockey. But this Ovechkin finally came to the realization he wasn’t winning shit from a team standpoint unless he changed as the leader of the team.

Ovechkin has led and his mates have followed suit. Kind of like what Russell Westbrook needs to do as a basketball player.

This reminds a bit of when Dirk finally won his championship in 2011.

These Caps finally exorcised the demons of the Pittsburgh Penguins and are but four wins removed from winning the Stanley Cup.

This is not an incredibly talented team, but they play smart and play with some heart. They really do. They play like this means a great deal to them to show the hockey world this is what they’re capable of doing as a team.

Tom Wilson is a role player. He’s often out there on the ice with Ovechkin as the checking forward. The checking forward basically works his ass forechecking the other team into submission and hopefully creates some turnovers which turn into goals. But most of all guys like Tom Wilson create space and time for a star like Alex Ovechkin and even fight when their teams needs them to do so.

I finally did watch an NBA game the other night when Houston of all things found a way to win Game 4 in Oakland.

But the Stanley Cup Finals is what has my attention right now in that the players seem to care more.

Russell Westbrook… please watch the Stanley Cup Finals. What could it hurt?